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Phil Klay

@philklay.bsky.social
6.7K followers 405 following 846 posts

Author of Redeployment, Missionaries, and Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War. Teaches at Fairfield University MFA.

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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
“Ukraine said that its military, with no warning, had lost access to a military version of Starlink, a pillar of its battlefield communications.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/14/w...
nytimes.com
Ukraine’s Vulnerability Grows as Starlink Is Restricted and Russia Escalates
A huge attack cut power to 600,000 people in Kyiv, and a Pentagon-funded satellite internet program appeared to be curbed without warning.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
“Sally Rooney, the bestselling and award-winning Irish author, will no longer be distributed by Faber & Faber due to her support for Palestine Action, the author has said” www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
irishtimes.com
Sally Rooney’s books will no longer be available in UK over her support for Palestine Action
Faber blames UK antiterrorism legislation for decision to stop distributing bestselling author’s works
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Thank you
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Thank you
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Thank you Kori
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 13/10/2026
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com In announcing that a public execution would be livestreamed, Pete Hegseth takes refuge “in a humiliated nationalism which insists, without much evidence, that all your problems would be solved with more cruelty, more celebrations of violence,” Phil Klay writes.
nyti.ms
Opinion | A Public Execution Won’t Distract From Pete Hegseth’s Failures
The secretary of defense is banking on a sadistic public.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
“I doubt questions of justice are Mr. Hegseth’s real motivation. His career has long mixed celebrations of violence with disturbingly little concern for whether the people we kill are enemies.” I wrote about Hegseth and the idea of live-streaming an execution. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/13/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Pete Hegseth’s Bloodlust Doesn’t Hide His Military Failures
The secretary of defense is banking on a sadistic public.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
“They survived something large, inexplicable and unforgettable: World War I. Might they benefit from therapy? Sure. But that would have made for a boring tale.”
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Fitzgerald deemed the work “damn good” but cautioned that it didn’t find its stride until page 29. “You can’t play with people’s attention,” he advised Ernest Hemingway. “A good man who has the power of arresting attention at will must be especially careful.” www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
wsj.com
‘The Annotated Sun Also Rises’ Review: The Wounded Generation
The bloody bullfights of Ernest Hemingway’s novel are echoes of the violent event that haunts the expatriates: World War I.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think Hegseth is fundamentally a broken human being.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I always laugh when I think of Anne Carson’s introduction to her translation of Euripides’ Hekabe: ‘I have had for some years on my computer a file called "Unpleasantness of Euripides," in which I place at random thoughts on this subject…’
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
‘Hoel, who sported an impressive beard, told me that he hated that A.I. compromised human freedom. “I want a world where my kids are able to matter in the way that our generation was able to matter and make choices.’” —Becca Rothfeld www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
newyorker.com
The Humanism Driving the Anti-A.I. Movement
At the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, D.C., attendees talked less about jobs and policy, and more about their philosophy of life.
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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Love her or repelled by her, Andrea Dworkin, was, often, right and possessed a brilliantly sharp intellect. She was attacked, mercilessly, relentlessly, because she refused to be diminished. Younger generations need to know about her.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“Cheap, propagandistic views of fucking…are repudiated by the presence of a whole human life with all its worth in the act and at stake.” —Dworkin, INTERCOURSE
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“Language isn’t just the sound of a community – it also carries a whole way of thinking. It captures the character and nature of the people whose mother tongue it is” pen.org/alim-aliiev-...
pen.org
'A Critical Part of Our Code': Alim Aliiev, PEN Ukraine Member, on Crimean Tatar Language, Literature, and Identity
Russia’s illegal occupation in 2014 came with new attempts to dismantle the Crimean Tatar identity in a bid to re-colonize Crimea.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Unless there’s “a legitimately high likelihood of violence,” Shahverdian [PEN/America’s director of higher education and free expression] said, “campus leaders need to model a willingness to do everything they can to allow that speech to happen.” www.chronicle.com/article/hasa...
chronicle.com
Hasan Piker Is the Latest Test of College Speech
Last year’s murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University shows safety risks are real.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Literally happening right now www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Trang was beaten so badly by police in 2015 that she needed crutches to walk "I don't want freedom for myself; that's too easy," Trang wrote. "I want something greater: freedom for Vietnam."
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It is worth looking at the profiles of these writers to see what they are enduring for daring to criticize their own government (an act which, in the long term, strengthens countries)
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
In a joint letter @penamerica.bsky.social together with a coalition of 10 human rights organizations called for the immediate release of unjustly imprisoned Vietnamese journalists and writers including Le Huu Minh Tuan, Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Pham Doan Trang. pen.org/press-releas...
pen.org
Joint Letter to US State Department on Vietnamese Imprisoned Writers
In a joint letter to Marco Rubio, PEN America called for the immediate release of unjustly imprisoned Vietnamese journalists and writers.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I’m honored to serve as the President of PEN/America, which has been defending free expression and celebrating literature for over a hundred years.  pen.org/press-releas...
pen.org
Award-Winning Author Phil Klay Named President of PEN America
PEN America today announced the selection of award-winning novelist, essayist, and professor Phil Klay to serve as its president and chair of the Board of Trustees of the 104-year-old writers organiza...
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Dillard was such a beautiful writer but also so damn funny.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“That it's rough out there and chancy is no surprise. Every live thing is a survivor on a kind of extended emergency bivouac. But at the same time we are also created.” RIP Annie Dillard
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Tonight at Fairfield University The World after 9/11: Reflections on the Enduring Global Impact of the Attacks events.fairfield.edu/event/the-wo...
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The lieutenant said, 'Have you seen enough?" speaking savagely, almost as though I had been responsible for these deaths. Perhaps to the soldier the civilian is the man who employs him to kill, who includes the guilt of murder in the pay-envelope and escapes responsibility. —The Quiet American
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“Wistful appeals to congressional action should be accompanied by the desolate strains of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique” @kschake.bsky.social www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
foreignaffairs.com
Why We Should Fight
And where Trump went wrong.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Yeah. Every Palestinian I know with family over there has some direct story of devastation
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“[Under Obama] Israel approved just three new settlements in the West Bank; since the start of 2023…it has approved one hundred and four.” “In the first seven months of 2026, there were at least one thousand three hundred and eighty settler attacks” www.newyorker.com/news/a-repor...
newyorker.com
New Maps Show How Israel Has Thwarted Hopes for a Palestinian State
The breakneck expansion of settlements in the West Bank has rendered American talk of a two-state solution increasingly irrelevant.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
(From “Pray Without Ceasing”)
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“I believed, and I was as sure as if she had told me, that when she sat alone that way, hurting or not, she was praying. Though I never heard her pray aloud in my life, it seems to me now that I can reproduce in my mind the very voice of her prayers.” RIP Wendell Berry
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
War is the continuation of memes by other means.
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Task & Purpose @taskandpurpose.com · 28/08/2026
Over the past 8 years, Jeff Schogol has been a steadfast and reliable teammate, a trusted voice for our audience, and the heart of Task & Purpose. Today is his last day, and as he leaves, we want to take a moment to reflect on his incredible contributions and the impact his work has had.
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Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 28/08/2026
Meet our next speakers joining “The Forever War and the First Amendment” symposium! ✦ @philklay.bsky.social, Fairfield University ✦ Brett Max Kaufman, @aclu.org ✦ @pastpunditry.bsky.social, @vanderbilt.edu #FirstAmendment #PressFreedom 🔗 Register here! knightcolumbia.org/events/the-f...
knightcolumbia.org
The Forever War and the First Amendment
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Hahaha
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Melissa Kutner @melissannbee.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Novelty Cistern
@noveltycistern.bsky.social
im reading bleak house and they just got to the house and guess what. its really nice. so what the fuck
11:26 PM • Apr 14, 2026
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Full Name @amicusopus.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
does this count, if it's old "social media"? "Perhaps you'd like two more chairs to contain your giant intellect?" (14:08) - Dick Cavett www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w...
youtube.com
Vidal VS Mailer — A Battle of Wit! | The Dick Cavett Show
YouTube video by The Dick Cavett Show
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
If it’s funny, it counts, and that’s funny
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
So good
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It’s a thing of beauty
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Hahahahaha!
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Reminds me of this Eddie Izzard bit youtu.be/Fki1FzWxXRg?...
youtu.be
Eddie Izzard - Room with a view
YouTube video by KimInChains
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Hahahahaha
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Some of my favorite bits of literary criticism on social media. What are other greats?
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
If you didn’t read this superb Mary Townsend piece on Dolly Parton when it first came out, now is the time. @plough.bsky.social www.plough.com/articles/dol...
plough.com
Dolly Parton Is Magnificent | Plough
The beloved Tennessee singer-songwriter gets the joke. Do the rest of us?
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New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 17/08/2026
“Today’s educational problems are often attributed to a deficit of focus or attention, but attention is an anemic way to understand what allows education to transform people,” Matt Dinan writes.
nyti.ms
Opinion | To Save Higher Ed, Professors Need to Get a Little Weird
Teachers need to model the passion they want to see.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
@commonwealmagazine.org
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
“If had a nickel for every time this year a controversy-stoking Twitter power-user who attended college in Ohio in the late 2000s published a follow-up memoir to their decade-old, bestselling account of early life, I'd have two nickels.” www.commonwealmagazine.org/fortenberry-...
commonwealmagazine.org
Imitation of Life
J. D. Vance’s ‘Communion’ and Lena Dunham’s ‘Famesick’ are two sequels to splashy, confessional memoirs by millennial authors. Only one of them is fun to read.
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Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
“Here at the age of thirty-nine I began to be old. I felt stiff and weary in the evenings and reluctant to go out of camp; I developed proprietary claims to certain chairs and newspapers;” Rereading Brideshead in your 40s hits differently.
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